


A Rise Ahead

by Catchclaw



Series: Mental Mimosa [75]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Victorian, M/M, Stranded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 19:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15201659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catchclaw/pseuds/Catchclaw
Summary: That misfortune had occurred was, of course, unexpected. But that it had occurred while Steven was in the company of one James Buchanan Barnes was entirely predictable.





	A Rise Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts: Victorian Era and Cabin. Prompts from this [generator](http://colormayfade.tumblr.com/generator).

That misfortune had occurred was, of course, unexpected. But that it had occurred while Steven was in the company of one James Buchanan Barnes was entirely predictable.

They had been out riding all morning, chasing each other hither and yon across the vast wilds of James’s newly inherited estate. It was not an unfamiliar place to either of them; they had played on it as boys, run as far as their legs could carry them over the green, sullen fields of Surrey, climbing trees and fences and wading with great glee into the many creeks that cut the property like living veins.

But that had been some twenty years hence and while much of the countryside remained blissful unchanged, the same creeks that had given them so much pleasure as children had overrun their banks more than once and sometimes violently, transforming some of the fields into bogs and making it necessary for James’s father, begrudgingly, to have the farmhands carve out new paths. It had been a great and, to James’s father’s mind, unreasonable expense, and so he had not bothered to do the simple things one must when reshaping one’s own land: namely, to update one’s maps.

And so, in the eagerness of their early morning exercise, Steven and James had by just after noon gotten quite lost. By the time they realized their error--by the time James had been willing to admit it, that is--the blue skies that had beckoned them at breakfast had gone coal black and let loose a hell of a storm. It had taken all of their know-how to keep the horses from bolting, from carrying them deeper into the unknowns of the afternoon dark. The very ground beneath them had begun to melt, dirt and grass running to muck, and the rain was so fierce, so whipped by the wind, that they had nearly lost sight of the other as they urged the horses forward and tried to still their own panic.

“We need to get above the flood plain!” James shouted.

“What we need,” Steven called back, “is to get out of this bloody rain!”

James shook his head. “Damn the rain,” he said, “another ten minutes and the water will swell, be over their hooves. We have to get ourselves out of this valley as soon as we can.” He swung his arm sharply ahead, pointed. “There!” he shouted. “A rise ahead. Do you see it?” He didn’t wait for Steven to answer. “Never mind if you do or not. Follow me!”

And as he had all his life, Steven had not hesitated, had felt no twinge of uncertainty, and plunged after James into the unknown.

Lo and behold, dumb luck and providence were on their side, for at the crest of the rise sat not only safety from the threat of flood but the tumbled-down remains of a gameskeeper’s cabin older, at the very least, than either of their fathers.

“Well,” James said as they stood just inside its doorway, the storm still raging at their backs. “It will do until the storm passes, surely.”

Outside, the horses nickered unhappily, neither pleased to be caught out in the rain. But at least, Steven thought as he tugged his sodden coat from his shoulders, they were tied securely to a tree that offered them a little shelter. Better there than stumbling blindly through the mud.

“Shall I start a fire?” he said.

James laughed. He was leaning against a broken table, struggling to pull off his boot. “You can try,” he said, “though I’d check the chimney first. I’d not like to get warm and dry only to choke on some smoke.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be taking a different approach to this series for the next week: namely, instead of creating new fics, I'll be going back and adding on to ones I've already made. I started this project because I had a dearth of material to work on--now, happily, I feel like I have too much! So I'll be returning to unfinished ficlets this project's already generated in hopes of nudging them towards becoming more fully realized as fics.
> 
> I've got some ideas in mind as to a few that I'd like to return to, but if you have a special favorite or two that you'd like me to consider, please let me know!


End file.
